A more than usually eclectic mix of words from Azed this week.
Two clues referred to heraldry; we had Scottish, Shakespearean and dialect terms. We also had pizza!
| Across | ||
| 1 | CUTGLASS | Share gin, dropping in, with girl, posh (8) |
| CUT G(in) LASS. | ||
| 7 | TWAS | Tales written and spoken? They’ll start thus (often) (4) |
| Initial letters. I think this qualifies as a semi & lit, with the definition only making sense by reference to the words comprising the wordplay. “‘Twas on a stormy night…” | ||
| 10 | PATCHWORK | Chat idly with wife cutting meat? It’s done clumsily (9) |
| *CHAT W in PORK. | ||
| 11 | SAPS | Drains setting health resorts back (4) |
| SPAS (rev). | ||
| 13 | ROOSE | Praise for Scots flew aloft round ring (5) |
| 0 in ROSE. | ||
| 14 | KNAIDEL | Fish wrapped in thin round dumpling (7) |
| IDE in LANK (rev). | ||
| 16 | PIZZA | I go round for something from the takeaway? (5) |
| AZ ZIP (all rev). | ||
| 17 | OBECHE | Tree line (not to be overstepped)? Live within it (6) |
| BE in OCHE (the line darts players must not cross when throwing). | ||
| 18 | PLUMASSIER | One supplies eiderdown? Misshapen lumps arise (10) |
| *(LUMPS ARISE). | ||
| 20 | CHREMATIST | Political economist turning flat in Messiah (10) |
| TAME (rev) in CHRIST. | ||
| 22 | CANTON | Ordinary contralto accompanied by Rubinstein? (6) |
| C (ontralto) ANTON (Rubinstein – famous 19th century Russian pianist and composer). Ordinary here is an heraldic term. | ||
| 24 | MUTED | Stifled, dropping dead (5) |
| I think the wordplay refers to the fact that mute is a dialect term for a bird’s dropping. | ||
| 27 | CLADIST | Youth in tomb, one espousing taxonomic theory (7) |
| LAD in CIST. | ||
| 29 | NGAIO | Marsh tree, some sequoia, gnarled, twisted (5) |
| Hidden and reversed in “sequoia gnarled”. Azed has given us two definitions here: the first refers to the New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh, and the second is the New Zealand tree (after which she was presumably named). | ||
| 30 | FLOE | Unattached drifter, latitude restricted by adversary (4) |
| L in FOE. | ||
| 31 | CAPELINES | Fashionable hoods converted pile in the sticks (9) |
| *PILE in CANES. | ||
| 32 | YEED | Last to stay the course and displaying old-style go (4) |
| Last letters of “stay the course and“. | ||
| 33 | OVERPAGE | Development of op? Where eager readers want to be (8) |
| OVER PAGE. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CUSK | Sea fish heading for Canadian river (4) |
| C USK. | ||
| 2 | UPANISHAD | Unpaid, has translated Sanskrit treatise (9) |
| *(UNPAID HAS). | ||
| 3 | TOPAZ | Turn over and force up stone (5) |
| T O and ZAP (rev). | ||
| 4 | LANDAU | Carriage going between Switzerland and Austria (6) |
| If you remove the intervening “and” this would be hidden in SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA. | ||
| 5 | ATHERMANCY | Fish famously we ignored on Cyprus not allowing rays to penetrate? (10) |
| (WE)ATHERMAN CY. The reference is to the BBC weather forecaster Michael Fish, who famously did not predict a hurricane on the night of the devastating storm in October 1987. | ||
| 6 | SHRUB | Can it grate lemon drink? (5) |
| I think the wordplay refers to the fact that shrub can mean scrub. | ||
| 7 | TWONESS | Tragic heroine about effected what marriage entails (7) |
| WON in TESS. | ||
| 8 | WOOF | Bark displays this texture (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 9 | SKEWERED | Run through reeds growing wild round garden (8) |
| KEW in *REEDS. To make the clue work, “run” has to be read in the past tense. | ||
| 12 | FLOAT PLANE | Something resembling flying boat adjusted panel aloft (10, 2 words) |
| *(PANEL ALOFT). | ||
| 15 | THEME SONG | Signature tune: The Dancing Gnomes (9, 2 words) |
| THE *GNOMES. | ||
| 16 | PECCANCY | Muscle stick-like, minimum of callisthenics admitted? Naughtiness (8) |
| PEC, C in CANY. | ||
| 19 | LETHIED | The idle mucked about, oblivious to the Bard (7) |
| *(THE IDLE). | ||
| 21 | IMAGER | It records pics I take, wizard inside (6) |
| MAGE in I R (where R is for the Latin word recipe, used traditionally in prescriptions by doctors to mean “take”). | ||
| 23 | OVOLO | Moulding, two wings conjoined within circles (5) |
| VOL (two wings in heraldry) in O O. | ||
| 25 | TILIA | Flowering plants perfect illuminated from below (5) |
| A1 LIT (all rev). | ||
| 26 | JAPE | Wheeze spattering Scotch, last in bottle (4) |
| JAP (bottl)E. | ||
| 28 | TENE | Old pains beginning to nag with little support around (4) |
| N in TEE. | ||
*anagram
Thanks Azed and Bridgesong.
I read 6dn as “Can it” = SH (in the sense “stop talking about that”) and “grate” = RUB.
Thanks bridgesong.
SHRUB is SH for Can it + RUB for grate.
SHRUB confused me too, though to be fair I didn’t worry about it too much when solving. Overall about as easy as Azed gets?